1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to method and apparatus for providing therapeutic applications, and more particularly to therapeutic applications for reducing swelling, treating skin and/or tissue, and for facilitating tissue healing as a result of trauma resulting from, for example, surgery, forceful impacts, strains and sprains, or any other inflammatory or allergic reactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Post-surgical trauma and trauma resulting from, for example, sports-related injuries, is a common occurrence with which patients must regularly contend. The trauma oftentimes manifests itself in the form of swelling which results from the accumulation of bodily fluids underlying the skin adjacent to the site of the trauma. Such swelling not only results in patient discomfort, but also inhibits recovery, as it results in an increased application of pressure against the tissue and surrounding nerve and organ structures. Furthermore, such swelling reduces patient mobility when the trauma is of an orthopedic nature. For all of the foregoing reasons, it is a common objective of health care professionals to reduce the accumulation of undesired fluid underlying the site of patient trauma as soon as possible. To date, such fluid reducing measures have typically encompassed the application of cold compresses such as ice packs for prescribed periods of time to the site of the trauma, followed by the application of hot compresses.
Prior to the development of the present invention, these known therapeutic processes have met with only limited success, as the cold compresses are oftentimes initially too cold for the patient to comfortably tolerate and, as a result, the patient is unable to tolerate the cooling effects of the compresses for the prescribed period of time. Furthermore, because the compresses remove heat from the body, the temperature of the compresses themselves progressively increases, thereby diminishing their temperature reducing affects. Longer periods of cooling can be provided by increasing the amount of coolant such as ice in the cold compress; however, such practices increase the size of the compress, thereby adversely impacting upon the compresses' ability to conform to the site of the trauma and compromising their effectiveness in removing heat from the site of the injury. An optimal regimen for reducing tissue swelling provides for treatment with cold compresses for up to about 72 hours followed by warm compress treatment for a period of about 10-14 days. Furthermore, because water has a high specific gravity, the provision of additional quantities of ice in the cold compress further increases the downward pressure exerted against the trauma site, thereby negating to some extent the benefits afforded by cold compress treatment. Further problems arise as a result of the considerable time demands of personnel at health care facilities, as the cold and hot compresses used in such facilities often times cannot be properly monitored and changed prior to loss of their effectiveness, particularly during overnight and prolonged stays. As a result of all of the foregoing deficiencies in the prior art, patient recovery from physical trauma surgery and inflammation is often prolonged, resulting in increased patient discomfort, lack of motility in instances of orthopedic trauma, and prolonged periods of patient medication resulting from discomfort arising from the trauma and the prolonged presence of subcutaneous swelling.
It is further known in the art that patient recovery from trauma can be expedited by the application of transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS), which typically involves the application of an alternating current (AC) potential to the tissue by way of two or more electrodes of opposite polarity Patient recovery can further be enhanced in some instances through the application to the skin of ionic and ionizable substances which can be transdermally delivered through the skin. Such transdermal or iontophoretic transport provides for the migration of the ionic substance along electric field lines established by the iontophoretic transport device. However, a limitation of such transdermal transport devices is the orientation of the field along a plane that is generally parallel to the surface of the skin, resulting in migration of the ionizable substance along the skin rather than transversely through the skin.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide for the processes of compress treatment, transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation and iontophoretic transport through the skin of ionic compounds without the above-noted deficiencies. It would further be advantageous to provide apparatus and methods which combine any one or more of the foregoing processes in order that they may be substantially simultaneously applied to the patient. It would further be advantageous to provide such apparatus and methods which provide for automatic administration and termination of such treatment processes after a user-selected time interval has passed. These and other objectives have provided the motivation for development of invention described herein.